Lord's Gym launches first Mud Run event in Oroville

OROVILLE &GT;&GT; High walls, freezing water and oozing mud didn't deter runners Saturday morning from reaching the finish line of a five-mile run in Oroville.

At 9 a.m., the first heat of the first Lord's Gym Mud Run took off running, facing numerous obstacles along the way.

The destination was Riffles RV Park on Pacific Heights Road, where Surplus City has a fun park that includes a paintball area and a four-wheel-drive obstacle course.

The course included obstacles atop the levee behind downtown Oroville, a stop at Bedrock Park, running through Riverbend Park and ending up at Surplus City.

Devon Oropeza finished first, clocking in at 49 minutes, 60 seconds.

At 11 a.m., dozens more arrived at the paintball park to find even more obstacles. Runners had to swim through a muddy water trough, then through an icy cold section, and traverse across two slick, oily looking utility poles. The runners also had to climb a huge cement wall and swim in the Feather River around a buoy.

One woman who finished ran straight to a group of other runners and bent over, panting but grinning widely.

Organizers previously estimated it would take 90 minutes for the first runner to finish, and three hours for slower people.

Danielle Devine, who organized the event, said she was surprised so many runners finished quickly. Some runners were already at the finishing area before she and other crews got there.

"It was very fast," she said.

Devine also runs the gym, which is located in downtown Oroville. The race started there at the corner of Bird and Downer streets, with groups leaving every 10 minutes.

She said they heard about mud runs, called "mudders" in some circles, and wanted to do an event with the gym's name.